


That's Ancient History, Baby

by orphan_account



Category: Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-13
Updated: 2012-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-29 11:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This silent, thoughtful Jason was something that she had never seen before and it was unsettling for her." Before The Lost Hero, Jason had had many adventures with his partner in crime, Reyna.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On The Mountain Top

Of course she had been put on guard duty with  _Jason Grace_.

The golden boy of the camp, set to become one of the next praetors when the current ones finally stepped down. Loved by almost everyone around him, he didn't even try to hide the size of his ego, and she hated him for it.

Girls, and boys, were constantly fawning over him, even if he was a member of the most hated cohort in the legion.

And of course, today of all days, there would be a disturbance up on the mountain.

The fog began clearing as they walked up the mountain in silence, slowly revealing the road up the mountain that the disturbance had been reported to be on.

She looked around the area, trying to carefully scope out what happened. With Jason by her side, she looked at him to see any kind of reaction from him. He began to walk forward and she followed him closely, still not speaking a word.

The fog moved to show a large black mass in the middle of the end of the path.

"What on earth?" She whispered.

"Hold on..." He muttered and closed his eyes, concentrating for a second. The wind picked up and the fog around the object cleared to reveal the wreckage of a car.

"Is that...?" She asked and he nodded.

"We should go back." She said, putting her hand on his arm. He stepped forward again towards the car. "Jason?" She asked, watching him as he moved.

"There might be someone who was hurt." He said, still moving forward.

"We can't do anything, let's just go back to camp and report this." He didn't listen to her. So she followed him further until she noticed the still steaming hole in the roof of the car and the slight smell of ozone in the air. He looked further up the mountain.

"We can't go up there!" She hissed and Jason shrugged, heading up the rest of the path, occasionally glancing at the floor. She shook her head and followed his eye line, looking at the collection of footprints on the floor. He jumped over the fence and helped her climb over behind him, making sure to grab her hand to keep her close to him as they moved through the trees.

Of course she had to be there to save his ass when he got himself into trouble.

"No one comes up here." She said, and he tilted his head towards her. "So why are there footprints?"

"Let's hope it's just some mortals who have been messing around with arson."

They walked a little further up the mountain as the sun was dipping down towards the horizon.

The figures of four women were stood at a large wall that appeared as the fog cleared even more. They were muttering worriedly between themselves, but stopped immediately when they saw the two Romans approaching.

"Get the intruders out!" One of them screamed and Reyna jumped.

"What?" Jason asked, furrowing his brow.

"They're going to destroy everything!" Another screamed.

That's when a horrifying roar echoed off of the edges of the mountain. The girls screamed and quickly opened the gates. Jason and Reyna looked at one another, weighing up their options.

It's not like they had much choice but to go into the garden and find out where that noise came from.

The dragon was rearing up and breathing fire into the air, whining pitifully.

"What is that?" Reyna shouted, running out of the way of it's giant paws.

"It's something I hope I'm wrong about..." Jason said, running after her.

"What  _is_  it, Jason?"

"Ladon, the guardian of Juno's apples." He grabbed her and pulled her to him as a tree collapsed from the force of the dragon's mighty claws.

"No!" She said. "You have to be wrong!"

Ladon roared again.

"Come on, around the edge of the garden..." He whispered, crouching down. She followed him, creeping along behind him.

"Where are we going?" She whispered and Jason shrugged and carried on walking. "So you don't have a plan?" He shook his head. "Then why are we here?" She hissed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him to a stop.

"Because I have a feeling that we have to be here." She was speechless. He was putting her life in danger because he had a  _feeling_?

Ladon appeared behind them and Reyna was embarrassed to admit that she screamed.

"Oh my gods!" She shouted and ran for it, as the dragon chased them across the garden.

"Quick, come up here!" Jason said jumping up a marble staircase. The dragon retreated back towards the golden tree in the middle of the garden.

"I hate you, so much." She panted as they paused behind a large rock.

"Yeah, yeah." He said, looking around.

"How the hell are we going to get back to camp now?"

"Why don't we just keep climbing?" He said, nodding to the top of the mountain. She hadn't noticed when she was running for her life that there were shouts and the familiar clang of swords from the summit.

"Jason,  _no_." She said sternly. "We are not going up there."

"Well I am." He said and started making his way up the next part of the stairs.

"Jason, get back here!" She shouted at him, but he completely ignored her and carried on walking.

She sighed and followed him up the stairs. When she reached the summit, he pulled her down behind yet another rock to stare at what was going on.

A group of people were fighting on the summit, in one of the strangest sights she had ever seen. She blinked and turned back to him.

"Who are they?" She whispered.

"I don't know..." He whispered.

"But?" She said. He looked confused.

"How did you know there was a but?" She shrugged.

"But I feel like I should know her." He pointed at the dark haired girl who was fighting a tall blonde boy with a scar across his face.

"It doesn't matter, now let's get out of here!"

The fighting on the other side of the rock suddenly stopped. Reyna and Jason peeked up around the rock to see an airplane approaching the summit, shooting at something that they couldn't see. They watched as the people somehow escaped, trapping someone on the peak of the mountain.

They waited.

And waited.

And it was silent.

They stepped out from behind the rocks and walked into the area where the fighting took place. Jason hadn't spoken since he had seen the girl he recognised.

"Jason?" Reyna whispered. This silent, thoughtful Jason was something that she had never seen before and it was unsettling for her. He looked at her.

"I know that girl." He whispered.

"Look, we've got to leave." He shook his head.

"We can't talk about this with anyone." He said.

"What do you mean?" She asked, stepping in front of him.

"They... They're not like us. They don't live in the Roman way."

"How do you know this?" He shook his head again.

"That doesn't matter. Let's get out of here." He took her hand once again and led her back down the mountain.


	2. You Won't Be Lonely Anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas was a lonely time for her. And apparently the great Jason Grace was lonely too.

She was spending Christmas alone, as usual.

While many of the campers had either gone to their families outside of Camp Jupiter or had retreated into the city to spend some time with them, she walked alone down the main road.

The shops and stalls were all deserted and she shoved her hands deep into her pockets to protect them from the biting wind that threatened to blow her away.

She had volunteered to over-see the cleaning of the cabins while everyone was away for Christmas and she was regretting it. All she wanted to do was curl up in her cabin alone and wait for everything to return to normal.

She  _especially_ didn't want to be left alone with Jason "I'll put your life in danger on a whim" Grace.

She didn't know why he was still here, and she didn't care to know. She just wanted this to be over with as quickly as possible.

He was stood waiting for her outside his cohort. She walked up to him in silence, ignoring the cocky grin he shot at her.

"Let's just get this over with." She said, curtly.

"Hey, about the other day..." He started, but she quickly cut him off.

"I'm not here to talk about that. We're going to clean cabins. That is  _it_." She stepped inside, wrinkling her nose at the smell of Dakota's Kool-Aid and the general smell of the worst cohort in Camp Jupiter. The cabin was a mess, with the exclusion of one or two bunks which were completely orderly, everything in place.

"Not up to your cohort's standards then?" Jason asked, and she could feel the almost mocking tone he used to address her.

She took off her coat and placed it on a chair. He did the same.

"Definitely not. How do you live like this?" He pointed over to one of the clean bunks.

"I live just fine, thanks." She raised an eyebrow.

"You really expect me to believe that that is your bunk?"

"You can search it top to bottom, but I think you'll find that it is my bunk." He said, crossing his arms over his chest in what seemed to be a kind of challenge.

She stepped toward the bunk, scanning it carefully. There was one photo on the table next to it, but other than that, there were no other personal effects. The picture was of a blonde woman. Someone she had seen before in another picture back on Circe's island...

"Who is that?" She asked, picking up the photo. Jason shuffled awkwardly.

"That... That's my mom." Oh. She had never thought of him as a mommy's boy before.

"I've seen her before. Back when I..." She stopped. She wasn't about to tell him about that.

"Yeah, of course you would have." He said bitterly. "Everyone has seen her before. Apart from me."

Scratch the bit about being a mommy's boy.

"What do you mean?" She asked, looking at him. Jason was looking at the picture in her hands.

"Do you know how old I was when I came to this camp?" She shook her head. "I was three." Reyna was shocked. She didn't know that they took on children that young.

"How?" She asked, sitting down on his bunk. He sat beside her and took the picture into his own hands.

"My dad offered my life to his wife in order to protect me. And at that age she decided that she wanted me to come here. She didn't want me anywhere near my mother."

"What happened to your mom?" Reyna asked quietly, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"She died a couple years back. I went to the funeral. Sorted out all her stuff and her house." He sounded wistful; like there was something else he was looking for when he went. Reyna looked again at his bunk and realised that he didn't have anything but this camp, which is why it was empty. At least she knew and remembered her father and her sister. Jason was all alone.

Softly, she put her hand on his arm.

"Maybe we should get to cleaning." She said, taking the picture and putting it back on the nightstand.

"Yeah. Cleaning." He stood up and walked to the other side of the barrack, before starting to pick up clothes and throwing them onto what Reyna assumed was the right beds.

Reyna got to work making the beds and putting the clothes he was moving into the correct storage places.

They worked in silence, as she stewed over the things that he had just told her. Maybe she had misunderstood Jason. Maybe he acted cocky and confident in front of other people to hide the fact that he was just  _lonely_.

 _Like she was_. She stopped dead in her tracks. Did she actually have something in  _common_  with Jason? She shook her head, trying to get rid of the ridiculous idea.

But the more she thought about it, the more she knew that she was right. She  _was_  lonely. Ever since she had arrived at camp after... She tried not to think about  _that_  particular time of her life. Ever since she had arrived at camp, she had no one. She had quickly made her way up the ranks and become, like Jason, a centurion of her cohort. But no one really knew her. They only knew her as Reyna, the one who will kick your ass if you try anything she doesn't like.

She had been denying it for so long that she had completely ignored her primal need for a friend. For someone she could actually talk to and spend time with. She looked up at Jason who was picking litter up off the floor.

"My dad died too." She said and he looked up, a confused look on his face.

"What?" He said, standing up straight.

"My dad. He died when I was five."

"Oh. I'm sorry." He walked over to her, and at that moment one of his cohort's members chose to walk in.

"Sorry, forgot something." He said before rooting around his bunk. Reyna glared at his back. How dare he interrupt her when she was trying to do something that doesn't come naturally to her.

After what seemed like an age, the boy finally left the cabin, leaving Jason and Reyna in an uncomfortable silence.

Jason coughed awkwardly. "What were you saying?" She looked down, embarrassed.

"I know what it's like... being in your position." He frowned.

"You know nothing about being like me. I'm  _trapped_. I didn't ask for this life." He said, bitterness seeping its way into his words.

"And you think I haven't been trapped in a life I didn't want?" She said, stepping back from him. "Since he died I've been constantly trapped and  _alone_!"

"Look, I didn't mean it like that..." He started, but the tears were already coming, prickling at her eyes like tiny sharp knives. She quickly turned away so he couldn't see them.

"Hey, don't cry-" She quickly cut him off.

"Don't!" She strode towards the door, picking up her coat as she went.

Looking down into the river from the bridge she was stood on she caught her reflection in the water. Puffy eyes were not the sign of a Roman. She wiped her eyes again, trying to ignore the fact that she failed and she was going to be lonely for as long as she stayed here.

She didn't notice the gangly blonde figure which appeared next to her own reflection until he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jason asked and she shook her head.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to upset you." He continued.

"It doesn't matter, Jason." She said, her voice hoarse, her eyes trying to avoid his gaze.

"It does matter." He sure was persistent, she'd give him that much. She turned her back on the river and slid down to sit on the floor. He sat opposite her.

"You were saying about your dad?" He asked, prompting her to talk.

"My dad... He was great. At least, what I remember of him. Sweet, kind... Not the kind of person you'd think a war goddess like my mom would go for." _Her sister had told her afterwards that their father secretly enjoyed the aspect of their mother that was closely associated with Discordia._

"That sounds great." Jason said, and she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Yeah. It was. Till he had a stroke." She looked at her hands, remembering when her father held her hands on his deathbed and told her to be brave. That she was going to do great things. One day she would be a great leader. That she shouldn't mourn his death. That she should have the courage to overcome this and anything that stood in her way.

"Turns out he had an inoperable brain tumor." She said, finally looking up at Jason. He didn't say anything so she continued.

"That's when I ended up on Circe's island."

"Circe?" Jason asked, looking confused.

"Yeah. And I stayed there for a long time. Right up until..."

"Until?" He asked, noticing her change in demeanour as she thought about it.

"I was... taken." She said, trying hard not to tear up again.

"By who?" He asked, completely entrapped in her story.

"...Pirates. And they weren't exactly... friendly." She bit her lip. "I don't really like talking about what happened."

"No, no. I understand." He said.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until he got to his feet, offering her his hand. She took it and he helped her up off the cold stone floor.

"You want to get some coffee?" He asked, still holding onto her hand.

"...But everywhere is closed today for the holidays?" She said, relishing in the warmth of his body after being out in the cold for so long.

He grinned his signature smile, a small scar on the top of his lip that she had not noticed before stretching as he did. "I know a place."


End file.
